Annalise is still standing, protected by the tree to her right. I’m low. There are bullets hitting the ground near me. I shout, “Annalise, you have to get down.” She doesn’t hear or she isn’t listening, and she stays standing. I’m about to shout again when she raises her gun, and I turn, expecting to see a Hunter running to attack her. But it’s worse.
Connor is scrabbling over to the crate of guns. I shout at him, “No, Connor. No!” But it’s too late. Marcus is too angry. He grabs Connor by the hair and drags him round to face me and looks at me as he stabs Connor in the throat.
Annalise’s gun fires and fires again.
Marcus staggers.
The second bullet hits him a few centimeters above the first, both in his chest. Small red marks are spreading on his shirt and he drops to his knees. And I’m frozen in place, staring at him.
My father, shot.
I turn to Annalise, her gun still held straight, pointing at Marcus.
I step between them to protect him. I’m standing upright. She screams at me, “You promised! You promised!”
And there’s more shooting around us and Gabriel leaps on me and pulls me to the ground, lying on top of me to protect me. When I look up Annalise has gone.
Slowing Time
I scramble back to Marcus, keeping low to the ground. I have to pull him behind the crates. His wounds are bad but they’re not fatal. And this is Marcus: his healing powers are huge. He’ll be all right.
“You can keep yourself alive until we get back to Van,” I tell him.
Marcus coughs. “I’m not sure how you’re going to get me back there. Back anywhere.”
It’s true: most of the Alliance members have fled now but if some of them go back to the cut, and the Hunters find it, all will be lost. There are four or five bodies of rebels on the ground and I see a straggler fall in the distance. And it hits me that this has all been well planned. The Hunters will have watched to see where the cut is; our camp may already be in their hands.
Nesbitt crawls over to join us. He says, “Most of the Hunters have followed the foragers but we’re surrounded still.”
Gabriel helps Nesbitt drag some wooden crates over to form a makeshift barrier to one side of us. The cases of guns are by our feet. Gabriel goes through them and tries to fire them. None of them work. They’re all broken in some way.
We’re trapped.
Greatorex, Claudia, and Sameen are nearby, hunkered down behind some other cases. I can see Olivia’s body close to them. Everyone else has run.
Nesbitt offers his flask to Marcus. “It’s just water,” he says.
Marcus takes it but his hand is shaking.
“Any bright ideas, anyone?” asks Nesbitt.
Gabriel says, “We need to get away as soon as we can. I make out sixteen Hunters around us. But the others will be back.”
“There might be more,” I say. “I think these are the ones with Wallend’s tattoo. I think they can all go invisible.”
“Shit!” Nesbitt says.
“Yes,” Marcus agrees. “Shit!”
“Can you run, Marcus?” Gabriel asks.
“I don’t think—” Blood bubbles out of the corner of his mouth and he coughs. I can see he’s healing, and his healing is strong but it won’t last. “I don’t think I can even stand at the moment. These bullets are bastards, aren’t they?”
“Can we cut them out? Like you cut mine out?”
“One is in my lung; if you cut that out I’ll die anyway.”
There’s more shooting and I know Marcus certainly won’t be able to outrun Hunters. I look around. I’m not sure I can outrun them.
Nesbitt and Gabriel have crawled farther away and are shooting at a group of four Hunters who have crept up on us.
Marcus says, “I haven’t much strength but I think I can help you to get away. I can slow time enough. It probably won’t last more than a minute, maybe not even that. But it should allow you to get past the Hunters around us.”
“And what about you?”
“I stay here.”
I shake my head. “I’ll carry you. We’ll get you out.”
“No. That’s not what happens. I’ll be too slow. You have to get away.”
“No.”
“I can’t heal these wounds. I’m dying, Nathan. You have to fulfill the prophecy. You know that, don’t you? This is what I saw in the vision.”
I shake my head. “No. I can’t.”
“You can. The Fairborn will help you. It’ll want to cut me. Pull open my ribs. Eat my heart. Do it as a human. That is how it is in my vision. Take my Gifts. Take them all and use them.”
I have a feeling that everything in my life has led to this point but I don’t want any of it.
“It’s the only way, Nathan.”
“I can’t do it.” But I can see Marcus is determined for himself and for me.